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Spiceman0 on Tuesday, August 05, 2008 8:46:07 AM
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Spirituality and Politics
Copyright © 2008 Phillip L. Hansen - Above conditions apply
You may just wonder as I have what spirituality has to do with politics. This question, I never thought I would ask.
Like many I thought that politics and Spirituality were poles apart, but apparently that is not true.
Politics is the art of influencing people in order to achieve a common purpose of mutual collective benefit. We can use it for good or for evil, good or bad. This would depend upon our motives, character. Thoughts, feelings or desires motivate us to action. Are we thinking of mutual just compensation or benefits to all, motivated by pure unselfish intent, or are we vying for personal gain or selfish ambition at the expense of others.
Spirituality is our ability to discern the spirit of truth from the spirit of confusion. The spirit of truth is calmness and assurance, a total understanding of what is, what was and what is to come. We can be lead by a good spirit or a deceiving spirit, which may indicate the nature of our thoughts, feelings desires and motivations. Spirituality is the path leading to increased knowledge, wisdom and understanding of the truth, while to the contrar persuaded because of indifference vanity and pride; blindness and conceit, we may mislead others. The excuse, “The end justifies the means.” However, we are only deceiving ourselves by thinking this way
The following may be an over simplification
The Spirit may influence us for good or ill, -->an increase or decrease of spiritual influence or an increase or decrease of Spirituality.
We may influence others for good or ill, -->an increase or loss political influence, an increase or decrease in the ability to lead.
Like every journey, we choose the direction, however that choice is the forerunner in discovery of the known, unknown and knowable, while at times the un-foreboding temptation is to act on something we feel true, unbeknownst to us that it is untrue. We may not recognize this error, moreover, if by our nature we choose to deny reality or to justify ourselves, then we have lost a degree of influence and trust; the virtues once lost are harder to regain.